Researchers constantly find that reading to children is valuable in a variety of ways, not least of which are instilling a love of reading and improved reading skills. With better parent-child bonding from reading, your child will also be more emotionally secure and able to relate better to others. Intellectual performance will expand as well. Spending time together watching television fails as a substitute. To help other parents apply this advice, as a parent of four I consulted an expert, our youngest child, and asked her to share with me her favorite books that were read to her as a young child. Meet Babar and His Family was one of her picks.
The Babar books belong in every home with children. If you already know the series, I'm certain that you agree. If you don't know Babar and his family, you should. They represent idealized "family values" as elephants together. Their relationships with others are ideal as well, including their elephant friends, other animal friends, and the Old Lady (a human) who teaches school in Celestville, where they all live. I also like introducing children to a world where animals may have more authority than people do. That can help establish all kinds of interesting new thoughts about our relationship to the natural world.
Meet Babar and His Family has a good balance of illustrations, actions, and story development to keep your youngster's mind occupied while you read to him or her during the preschool years. Later, your child will be reading this and other Babar stories to you. Memorizing what you have read aloud and learning to follow along with the words will be part of that process of learning to read.
As the title suggests, this story is built around introducing each of the characters, helping you understand their qualities and role in the series, and showing the kinds of activities they typically do. The only aspect of the stories that is not fully developed is that Babar and his wife, Celeste, are king and queen of the elephants and rule over Celesteville. But they are wearing their crowns and are identified as king and queen, so you can expand on this theme of the later stories easily enough.
Most of the other stories in the series do not include all of these characters, so finding them all here will make it easier for your child to understand the other stories when you move on to them.
The Babar family's children are Pom, Flora, and Alexander. As is usual, they get a little too active, and one of them gets hurt (Pom, in this case) and is treated by Doctor Capoulosse. Naturally, Babar's young cousin Arthur is in the story, playing with his friend Zephir, the monkey. Cornelius, the oldest of the elephants, has tea with the Old Lady.
The story takes you through four seasons' worth of activities, including ones that the family does together (like go skating, picnicing, and listening to a concert) as well as children's activities (like a snowball fight, going to school, and taking the school bus). The Babar family likes to be together with their friends, also.
After you have enjoyed this warm family story, I suggest that you get out your calendar for the year ahead and jot down the activities that you would like to do with your family and friends. Then speak, call, go on-line, or write to make the arrangements. Spending the time you want with those you love requires a little planning and putting a priority on this activity. After all, you probably were looking forward to having a nice family life when you got married and decided to have your first child, weren't you? Stalled thinking, lazy habits, and lack of focus can keep you from enjoying this opportunity. Be like Babar and Celeste and be the royalty of your family by leading on to worthwhile activities!
Live a full and happy family life together!
